Pitney Bowes Inc. (NYSE: PBI) today announced Stamford-based Movable Media and New York-based XYVerify as the winners of the Company's first Entrepreneurial Competition. The winners of the inaugural innovation-focused contest submitted proposals leveraging some of the Company's core customer communications management technologies and capabilities.
“Good ideas must be cultivated and allowed to grow,â€Â said Joe Timko, Executive Vice President & Chief Strategy and Innovation Officer. “We were impressed with the entries we received and felt there is value in supporting more than one of the innovative business concepts. We elected to grant awards to two finalists. Pitney Bowes looks forward to working with these innovative and deserving entrepreneurs.â€Â
Movable Media, a content marketing technology and services firm, was selected for its presentation of Content With an Audience. Movable Media helps brands to become publishers by connecting them with influential featured authors who reach a targeted audience, and helps authors to bring their followers to their content on brand-controlled properties. Movable Media's performance-based approach to content marketing increases the value of content to both marketers and authors.
"We are very excited by the opportunity to combine our performance-based approach to content marketing with a leading customer interaction solution from Pitney Bowes,â€Â said Andrew Boer, President, Movable Media. “We think this approach to content optimization, based on previous interactions, will be the next logical phase of content marketing for brands."
XYverify was selected for its Mobile Geolocation Service that protects users from identity theft and transaction-related breaches by authenticating verified mobile phone locations to help merchants, acquiring banks and card issuers reduce risk and increase profitability. The fraud management service works invisibly in the background—without any extra customer interaction, download or mobile application required. With the XYverify service in place, location intelligence data securely and privately confirms mobile device distance to any point of sale, business, home or postal mail address to reduce fraud.
“The ability to visualize spatial data and understand relationships between specific locations helps organizations working with XYverify make more strategic business decisions,â€Â said Elliot Klein, Founder, XYverify, “By leveraging Pitney Bowes' location-based data, companies can identify business growth opportunities and improve the value from XYverify location intelligence information.â€Â
These awards entitle Movable Media and XYverify to take up residency, rent-free, in the Pitney Bowes world headquarters in Stamford, Conn., for one year. During that time, the winners will have access to Pitney Bowes's technology platforms and capabilities, as well as the Company's technical and business expertise. Pitney Bowes will provide the winners with an introduction and access to the Stamford Innovation Center, which is also providing mentoring and coaching services to the winners.
Finalists delivered brief presentations in October on their companies, pitching their new technologies and explaining their business plans. Finalists were queried by a panel of Pitney Bowes technology and industry experts, and were assessed by a standardized metric rubric.
The Entrepreneurial Competition is designed to identify and accelerate the development of businesses across all markets that can leverage select Pitney Bowes core technology platforms. The Entrepreneurial Competition was launched on July 23, 2012, and supported by the Stamford Innovation Center with whom Pitney Bowes has a sponsorship agreement. For additional information, visit the Pitney Bowes Entrepreneurial Competition website.
About Movable Media
Movable Media is a performance based content marketing platform that helps brands reach new audiences through "The Author Channel". Movable Media recruits and manages authors with unique expertise and existing audiences and provides incentives, tools, and feedback for the amplification of the content through search and social networks. Movable Media currently manages original branded content programs for Proctor & Gamble, Williams Sonoma, MYOB, and many others. Movable Media is headquartered in Stamford, Connecticut.
About XYverify
XYverify Corp., a mobile development, location and analytics company headquartered in New York City's Silicon Alley, provides location-based services for the application of smarter analytics to reduce fraud and protect users. The Company is re-defining the way companies integrate location-aware intelligence by working invisibly in the background—without any extra customer interaction, download or mobile application—to authenticate mobile phone locations for merchants, acquiring banks and card issuers. Transaction fraud risk is a growing financial and customer challenge today. XYverify confirms a mobile device in a customer's possession, providing a new level of security and location-based opportunities through wireless location intelligence data and the mobile device's proximity to any point-of-sale, business, home or postal mail address location. For more information, visit www.XYverify.com.
About Pitney Bowes
Pitney Bowes provides technology solutions for small, mid-size and large firms that help them connect with customers to build loyalty and grow revenue. The company's solutions for financial services, healthcare, legal, nonprofit, public sector and retail organizations are delivered on open platforms to best organize, analyze and apply both public and proprietary data to two-way customer communications. Pitney Bowes includes direct mail, transactional mail, call centers and in-store technologies in its solution mix along with digital channels such as the Web, email, live chat and mobile applications. Pitney Bowes is a $5.3 billion company with 29,000 employees worldwide. Pitney Bowes: Every connection is a new opportunity™. www.pb.com
